Posts tagged system

OS X does a pretty good job of maintaining itself due to its Unix core, but there are times when you'd like to run some of its self maintenance tasks manually, and that's where IceClean comes in.
Just using the built-in Unix System Tasks that underlay OS X, you can clean out system caches for...

Cleaning up a Mac is something many users never do, but if you want to squeeze all the performance and disk space you can out of your Mac, you need a tool like Onyx.
A free multi-purpose utility, Onyx lets you run a myriad of system tasks such as disk maintenance, cache clean-up and index reb...

ExEn is a brand new tool for developers that's designed to bridge the gap between XNA, Silverlight and iOS (and eventually Android). XNA stands for "Xbox New Architecture," and is the general API used by developers to create games for Microsoft's Xbox console, and ExEn purports to take those ga...

New audio input capabilities are nothing new for JVC, but soon you'll be able to show off your guitar chops alongside whatever bands you choose to idolize -- so long as you're kosher with rocking a boombox atop your left shoulder, of course. The company has announced that the 2011 offering from i...

So Naoki Yoshida's producer's letter came just a bit too late last week for me to rewrite my column, which focused mostly on the dungeons and rampant speculation regarding same. This week, however, I can write about all of the things that came out of both his producer's letter and Akihiko Matsui'...

For the most part your Mac just works, but for some of us, we want a little more information on how well our Macs are working and what's doing what, when. That's where apps like the mainstay of the Mac monitors, iStat Pro and iStat Menus come in. Today we'll be taking a quick look at a small, US$...

Canonical's still one month away from letting Natty Narwhal (also known as Ubuntu 11.04) out of the cage, but it's already teasing us with another OS flaunting an alliterative mammalian monicker. Like the Narwhal before it, Oneiric Ocelot (or Ubuntu 11.10), due out this October, will offer a 2D Open...

When you're fed up with your Mac telling you it's not about to open the pod bay doors and wondering if, Dave, you really want to do that, you may want to think about making some custom sounds for it yourself. And as luck would have it, there's a great tutorial on how to do just that over at Macwo...

One of the most interesting booths at last week's Macworld Expo was that of Smart Technologies, who were showing off their interactive touch surface systems. These aren't necessarily Mac-related, unfortunately -- the equipment Smart sells is just an interface, or rather a series of interfaces desig...

As promised a while back, we got to chat with Elliptic Labs here at CES, and CEO Stian Aldrin walked us through the touchless gesture technology his 15-person Norway-based company is developing as a prototype. The whole thing is based on ultrasound, it turns out -- a small speaker kicks out frequen...

BMW has released two apps for iOS this week. The first one, based on the Mini brand, is called Mini Connected, and it allows you to not only track information about your car, but also access web radio and audio versions of internet feeds, hooked up directly to your car's stereo. And on cars equippe...

Elliptic Labs has been working on gesture-sensing technology for a while now (where you can just swipe your hand in the air instead of actually touching a screen), and rumor has it that the company will be showing off a dock at next month's CES show for the iPad -- something that enables you to con...

Microsoft recently released its Kinect motion sensor system for the Xbox 360 -- it's a little camera-equipped device that plugs into the game console and lets you control game titles, Wii-style, with just your body in lieu of any actual controllers. Just a few days after release, the hardware was h...

It's been a little while since we've heard from St. Clair Software, makers of the well-known system utility, Default Folder X (which we've covered before). You may recall that we caught up with St. Clair Software developer Jon Gotow at WWDC '09. Well, he's got something new to announce today: App Ta...

I have already seen the iPad used in home automation -- Savant is using an iPad app to hook up to some of their home automation systems, using Apple's tablet to control the TV, a whole entertainment system, or even do some remote control of house lights or HVAC, or even monitor cameras remotely wit...

As promised, Barnes & Noble has released their NOOKstudy app for both Windows and OS X computers -- you can get the app for free on their webpage now, and then use it to download textbooks for school this fall (either buying them at a discount compared to the real paper copies, or just checking...

It's an open secret that Final Fantasy XIV is going to be quite intensive on computers. Even with the release of the official benchmark program, no one has been quite sure how accurate the test is for gauging performance. (The fact that the benchmark focuses on performance during congested periods ...

Curious as to whether or not your computer will be able to handle Final Fantasy XIV? We're due for an exclusive interview with Square-Enix in the very near future at E3, but that's focusing on game mechanics and story details. Luckily, much like Final Fantasy XI before, Square has made an official ...

Look up at the sky -- is it falling? It sure seems as if that kind of doom is imminent, at least if this whole iPhone 4 pre-order situation is any indication of future tragedy. We've received hundreds of tips this morning from friends near and far that iPhone 4 pre-orders aren't going through, th...

Imagine this: you put your iPad into its dock next to your desktop (or laptop), and it transforms into a heads-up display of all the important stats from your machine. Maybe add some news and weather, and your "Today" list from your favorite to-do app. I'm sure there are a good number of people who ...